Blog #293 Eyes to the Sky Times Seven


Intern Elsa Brenner pointing to Fledgling Hope at Salt Point, courtesy of Anita Brenner. 

Thanks to Discover Cayuga Lake, a topnotch local nonprofit environmental educational  organization focusing on the ecology and cultural importance of Cayuga Lake and its  watershed, I had ample help this summer studying our local Osprey population.  Through Discover Cayuga Lake’s intern program, I was fortunate to work with six very  capable environmental studies students on my Osprey research and outreach work: Elsa Brenner (Boston College), Julie Garrow (Cortland State), Maggie Lachance

(Hobart and William Smith Colleges), Kaylin Lemajeur (Cornell University), Jonathan  Rhudy (University of Vermont), and visiting from Liberia, Patience Koenig (Wells  College). 

Candace showing the Salt Point Osprey nest to interns Kaylin Lemajeur and Patience Koenig and Discover Cayuga Lake director Bill Foster, courtesy of Astrid Jirka. 

Discover Cayuga Lake is using Ospreys— the perfect charismatic megafauna for the  job— as a vehicle for teaching the community the importance of protecting the lake’s  water quality. As apex predators of their aquatic ecosystems, Ospreys are vulnerable to  hazardous substances added to the waterbody where they fish. These hazards  bioaccumulate in the bird’s fat, making them vital bioindicators of the health of their environment. (This concept is explained in detail in Blog #290 Ospreys Warn Us of  Environmental Dangers.) Thus, Salt Point’s Orpheus and Ophelia, and the entire colony  nesting around Cayuga Lake, are living indicators—and an important warning system— of our lake’s good water quality and healthy ecosystem.

Interns Elsa, Julie, Maggie, and Jonathan collected data for a study on the little known  post-fledgling period of the Osprey, which encompasses two weeks before their first  flight plus the following month or until the birds learn to fish proficiently. The behavior  and energetics of fledglings Hope and Lucky will be quantified and evaluated using field  observations taken at Salt Point combined with their activities in the nest as recorded by  the Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. Hundreds of hours of video footage will be analyzed to  develop a picture of this post-fledgling period. The interns eagerly worked successfully  as a team to develop ideas to improve our record keeping and methodology. An article  on this study will be forthcoming. 

Patience Koenig working on the PocketSights Cayuga Lake Osprey Tour, courtesy of Kaylin Lemajeur. 

Discover Cayuga Lake fosters appreciation of Cayuga Lake to promote its stewardship.  To further this, interns Patience and Kaylin converted sections of the Cayuga Lake  Osprey Trail into a guided lake tour using the PocketSights app. This upcoming PocketSights cell phone-based guided tour includes a selection of easily viewed Osprey  nests around the lake along with nearby wineries, restaurants, ice cream stands, and  venues of cultural, historic, and natural interests to encourage birders and other visitors  to explore the area and indulge in its many delicacies.  

In addition to its regular eco-cruises, specialty sunset ventures, and community seminar  cruises aboard the M/V Teal, Discover Cayuga Lake also offered popular Osprey eco cruises 2–3 times a week this summer, focusing on sightings of the Ospreys nesting in  the southern end of Cayuga in Stewart Park, the Inlet, and Treman Marina Park.

Youngster looking for Ospreys during an Osprey cruise on the Teal, courtesy of Astrid Jirka. 

To enhance their intern experiences, Elsa, Maggie, Kaylin, and Patience all served as  intern tour guides on the Teal’s Osprey cruises offering their insights gleaned this  summer.

Fledgling Ospreys in the Newman Inlet nest visited during the Osprey cruises, courtesy of Astrild Jirka. 

It was a sincere pleasure working with these bright and promising young people, and I  look forward to seeing what our data reveals. I wish them all the best as they resume  their studies and in their future careers working for environment.  

Pardon for the lateness of this post—I was in the Adirondacks studying Ospreys. 

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell  

Friends of Salt Point  

Lansing, NY 

cec222@gmail.com

EYES ON OSPREYS  

  

WATCH!  

Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam 

READ!  

On Osprey Time 

Ospreys of Salt Point 

VISIT!  

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail

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